I received a letter in the mail from a landman and he wanted to buy my grandfathers mineral rights, i didn’t even know that he has mineral rights so after alot of looking i finally found his name but trying to research is hard every where i turn or call i don’t get any answer, anyone have any suggestions, the rights are in borden county and its block 25 section 54, i cant even find a physical address any help would be appreciated.
The Railroad Commission’s map of that area shows a lot of recent activity that probably prompted the letter you got. Before considering any offers you need to pin down what you’ve got. Below is RRC’s current map with the area you described outlined in red.
A couple of months ago High Peak Energy got permits approved to drill the six long lateral horizontal wells shown extending into Section 54. The 4 wells that extend into the west half of the are part of what High Peak calls the Verdel 42-54 “A” Unit, and the two on the east side of the section are the “B” unit.
The landman who wrote to you must have found your grandfather’s mineral interest in the Borden County records. You might try contacting him and see if he will share the information with you that he has on that interest. But regardless, you will want to do your own research to confirm anything he might tell you.
If you don’t have deeds or other information to help you get started, and assuming you can’t physically go to the Borden County Clerk’s office in Gail, you can try searching the county deed records online through sites like TexasFile.com or CourthouseDirect.com. You’ll need to set up an account but there is no cost to search their deed indexes and if you find something you want to print it usually costs $1/page.
If you can get a better idea of the location and number of acres in your grandfather’s mineral interest I would then try contacting High Peak to find out if they are interested in leasing it. If that mineral interest is still in your grandfather’s name, affidavits of heirship or other legal steps may be required to transfer title to his heirs.
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Thank you so much, any information will help, every one i talk to i hit a brick wall.
Dusty i have a question, i went to the court house records department and i looked in the few books that i thought his name might be in, should i look through all the books? Again thank you
Glad you have access to the courthouse records, but not sure which books you are saying you’ve looked in there.
If you haven’t found the deed indexes that’s where I would start.There should be sets of indexes for Grantors (the people selling, or otherwise granting title to property to someone else) and another set covering Grantees (the people who received title to the property). The clerk’s office should be willing to help you get started on using them.
Each set of indexes covers a range of years. If you have no idea when or how your grandfather obtained title to that mineral interest I’d start by looking for his name in the Grantee indexes that cover the years he was alive. If that turn up nothing look in the Grantor indexes for those years to see if he sold the land that interest relates to but retained the mineral interest.
From the letter you got it sounds like a landman found a recorded document that connected your grandfather’s mineral interest. It’s interesting he was able to trace you down as being the heir to that interest, which may have involved some genealogy. Is it possible your grandfather inherited that mineral interest rather than bought it (possibly along with the land that it relates to)?
If that is a possibility then how he acquired title to that interest may not have involved a deed and there could be some missing links in the chain of title. In that case you may need to also search the indexes for the names of the people you think your grandfather could have inherited the interest from.
Do you have any more detail on the legal description to the property the mineral interest relates to beyond that block and section number you posted? If you have a specific legal description but you find nothing in the deed records you may need have some checking done by a title company using what’s called a title plant, that indexes records based on the description of the land rather than the names of the grantors and grantees.
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Thank you i will give this a try.